NORWALK -- A 24-year-old Stamford man accused of robbing and murdering a Shell station clerk in Norwalk will also be tried on charges related to armed robberies in Greenwich and Stamford when his case goes to trial in September.

Jury selection began Tuesday at Stamford Superior Court in the trial of Alain Leconte, who is currently being held on nearly $4.5 million bond for charges related to the Norwalk murder, a Greenwich robbery-shooting and a Stamford armed robbery. The crimes all took place in a three-month span from October 2009 to December 2009.

Prior to the start of jury selection, Judge Gary White ruled on motions filed by the defense and the prosecution.

White granted the prosecution's motion to join all of the defendant crimes in one trial -- a legal maneuver known as a "joinder." He said much of the evidence in the three cases is "intertwined," and the crimes appear to be similar in nature. He granted the state's motion "in the interest of judicial economy."

"It just appears to me that physical evidence and admissions made by the defendant connect all three of the offenses," White said.

The jury will hear audio recordings of conversations between Leconte and Anthony Simmons, a 40-year-old inmate who is currently incarcerated at Bridgeport Correctional Center on probation violation charges.

Simmons, a jailhouse informant, wore a wire in prison and recorded conversations he had with Leconte. The conversations were found to be admissible as evidence, as Leconte refers to the Greenwich robbery-shooting and the Norwalk robbery-murder.

Mark D. Phillips, Leconte's attorney, had objected to the inclusion of a transcript of the conversations, which, he claimed, included punctuation and italicized words that brought attention to areas in the transcript that aid the state's case. White overruled Phillips' objection.

Norwalk Police say Leconte and another man entered the Miracle Shell gas station on West Avenue at gunpoint on Oct. 10, 2009. The robbers made everyone in the store lie on the ground, and the gas station clerk -- Jose Morales -- was compliant with the robbers' orders to hand over the cash, police said.

Morales was lying on the ground when Leconte and the other man were exiting the store, and Leconte shot Morales in the head, police said.

Mustafa Jacobs, who police allege was in the getaway car at the time of the robbery, has also been charged with murder in connection with the Shell station robbery. He is awaiting trial on the charges.

A month-and-a-half after the Shell station robbery-murder, Leconte and another crew of criminals robbed Mobil-on-the-Run in Greenwich, and Leconte shot the gas station clerk in the back of the head on the way out of the store, police said. The bullet lodged in the back of the clerk's skull, but the clerk lived, police said.

Investigators found the method used in the Greenwhich robbery was strikingly similiar to the murder and robbery in Norwalk.

Leconte and 30-year-old David Hackney were arrested by Stamford Police on Dec. 14, 2009, during a failed bodega robbery in which Leconte held a gun to a cashier's head, police said.

The gun recovered from that robbery was later connected to the Greenwich robbery, and police learned that the men had robbed the bodega to get money to bond Jacobs out of prison, according to police.